A new Productivity Commission report found federal and state money going to NSW non-government schools grew by 27.2 per cent over the 10 years to 2021,jumping from $9683 to $12,313 per year.
By comparison,funding for public school students increased by 23.9 per cent over the same period from $17,693 to $21,923 a year.
The sharper increase in funding for non-government schools was mirrored across the country and comes after another Productivity Commission report released last month highlights how the nation’s literacy and numeracy results had gone backwards
That deal,known as Gonski 2.0,has been for giving public schools less government funding than they need to meet students’ educational needs while locking in the over-funding of some private schools around the country.
School funding has been a flashpoint of the state election campaign. The government has promised $253 million for more small group tuition in the state’s schools in 2023 while Labor has promised a $400 million future fund which would also provide tutoring as well as a boost to public school funding.
Private school funding has increased more than public school funding.Louie Douvis
As part of that promise,public school funding would increase to 75 per cent of the “school resourcing standard” two years earlier than planned in 2025.
That promise has come under criticism from NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell who said that is unfairly burdening NSW taxpayers and that the federal government must play its part.
The University of Sydney’s Rachel Wilson.Supplied
In response to the release of the latest Productivity Commission report,Mitchell said:“The NSW Liberal and Nationals government has committed to fully funding our public schools in the next round of school funding negotiations with the Commonwealth by ensuring they pay their fair share.”
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said of the report:“The Albanese Government is committed to working with state and territory governments to get every school to 100 per cent of its fair funding level.”
Dr Rachel Wilson,from the Centre for Educational Measurement and Assessment at the University of Sydney,said there had to be more close oversight on how money was being spent.
“We need more transparency on where the underfunding is,but also what the funding is spent on,” Wilson said.
“At a system level,we must be able to say whether we are investing effectively and pinpoint inefficiencies. We need a deep analysis at a national and state level on where funding is going and how it is being spent.”
as funding levels are adjusted for fairness under the Gonski model,which introduced a Schooling Resource Standard (SRS). The changes take into account parents’ income data to assess how much they can afford to contribute to fees. These funding cuts will be phased in until 2029.
Dr Sue Thomson,until recently the CEO (research) for the Australian Council for Educational Research,said funding needed to be lifted at schools with children from disadvantaged backgrounds,which tended to be public schools.
“We wonder why we’re not closing the gap[between advantaged and disadvantaged students] or why there’s a large proportion of kids who are not achieving very well. It’s the old ‘if you don’t change anything you don’t expect anything to happen’,” she said.
The Productivity Commission report also highlighted that NSW had one of the lowest rates when it came to teenagers from a low socio-economic background completing year 12 of any state and territory.
It said 67 per cent of students from a low socio-economic background finished year 12,five percentage points lower than the national average.
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